Rob's Weely Round-up

11 March 2022

Dear colleagues,

This has been a significant week in planning for the year ahead. At a meeting of Full Council on Monday evening the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s budget and Annual Delivery Plan for 2022/23 were agreed and the rate of council tax was set for the year ahead by our councillors.

The budget setting process impacts every area of our work. However, I know it is an area of our work that can appear quite complex and technical, especially for those not actively involved in it. For this reason, this week I thought I might offer an insight into how we as an organisation approach the budget setting process.

The Council’s revenue budget for next year is £272.554 million. Obviously determining how this will be spent is no small task. The starting point is a refresh and review, usually early each summer, of the Council’s medium-term financial plan. As part of this our colleagues in Finance make a range of assumptions about possible increases or decreases in Welsh Government funding and produce a number of models of what the impact of these might be for us to consider.

Alongside discussions about the budget at this time of year we will also be drafting and consulting on our Annual Delivery Plan. This is a breakdown of key actions that the Council will take in the coming year to deliver on our Corporate Strategy and the six key themes that we are particularly focusing on for 2022/23.

At the same time all Heads of Service are asked to estimate the pressures on their budgets. Some of these will apply across the board, for example the increase in national insurance contributions from April. In contrast,  others will be specific to individual teams and services, such as increasing contract prices or demographic changes like the aging population in the Vale that will cause an increase in demand for social care.

The objective at this point is to identify the scale of the gap between our expected budget for the following year and the cost of delivering our services.

As we go into Autumn, Cabinet and the Scrutiny Committees will begin to debate what they consider to be reasonable cost pressures. Our Finance team then begin to produce models for potential funding gaps and discussions begin about savings targets to help meet these. Calculations are also produced to show the impact of different levels of council tax.

The indicative budget settlement from Welsh Government was announced on 21 December this year. The 10% increase in funding was better than many had forecast. This meant it would be possible potentially fund more of our cost pressures than might otherwise have been the case. It also meant that lower rates of council tax could be considered.

While many people have a hand in shaping the final budget and there are discussions at SLT and in other forums throughout, this is ultimately a decision for Cabinet and councillors. Our role as officers is to advise and support them in this process.

A final budget proposal is then developed with the Leader of the Council and Cabinet. After being initially considered at a formal Cabinet meeting in late January, the proposals are considered by Corporate Resources Scrutiny Committee, before going back to Cabinet for approval. This then takes us to Monday night when all 47 councillors have an opportunity to debate the budget proposals. This year’s meeting ended with the budget proposals, the annual delivery plan they will fund, and the council tax rate needed to supplement the Welsh Government settlement all being agreed.

There are far too many people involved in the process to mention all individually but I must mention Carolyn Michael our Interim Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer who agreed to delay her retirement to help lead this year’s budget setting process and who has worked hard alongside her Operational Manager, Gemma Jones and the rest of the team.  I wanted to give a particular mention to our Finance colleagues, because of the level of work that goes into the process, but also want to mention our Democratic Services colleagues who steer the process so capably throughout and ensure that the Democratic process is run smoothly and efficiently.

On this note, I’ve also received a message of thanks from a headteacher at one of our schools on the “excellent support and guidance” provided by our Learning and Skills Finance team, so thanks to Nicola and her colleagues for the support that is offered to all our schools on issues around the budget process.  

Sticking with this theme I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the message from our HR team that was circulated yesterday to advise that this year’s backdated pay award will be paid this month. I know our payroll team have worked extremely hard this week to get the NJC Green Book, Soulbury and Chief Officer pay awards paid to staff, with very short notice of acceptance of these national pay agreements. Dealing with and checking 11 months of back pay is no small task. The team has worked pulled off a phenomenal effort to get this done. I know I can speak for all colleagues in saying a big thank you to everyone involved.

There is another point that I would like to make on the issue of pay. Many of you will hopefully have seen the work we did earlier this week to celebrate International Women’s Day. I am proud to work with so many inspirational women and if you haven’t had chance to read any of the #breakthebias campaign materials I would suggest you do.

However, as your Chief Executive I must also acknowledge that despite a big shift in recent years there is still a gender pay gap within the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Our most recent reported figures show the median gender pay gap to be 5.37% (as a percentage of men’s pay). This is down from 7.54% and 13.9% in previous years but still shows that there is more to be done. The introduction of digital systems, such as e-recruit, by our HR team have made it much easier to monitor the issue and our new recruitment and retention strategy will help us further improve how we ensure we offer great roles and opportunities for advancement to all.

Finally, I must again reference the horrifying events in Ukraine. There was lengthy discussion at this week’s joint Heads of Service and SLT meeting about preparing the Council to provide any support it can. I would like to particularly thank Tom Dodsworth, our Refugee Resettlement Coordinator, for all his work. The Leader of the Council met this week with his political counterparts across Wales and the WLGA has subsequently written to the Prime Minister stressing a desire from local authorities in Wales to get involved.

At the same meeting I was humbled by the suggestion from colleagues in Social Services that we as an organisation could develop a scheme that allows all staff to get involved and fundraise for those affected by the conflict. This is a fantastic idea. A small team are currently working to develop this and I will have full details on exactly what is proposed and how all staff can get involved next week.

For now, thanks as always for your efforts this week. Diolch yn fawr pawb.

Rob.